According to AMD, this is the "first official unified and logo certified driver for Windows 8, Windows 7 and Windows Vista." The firm touts compatibility with DirectX 11.1 as well as version 1.2 of the Windows Display Driver Model, and it says Radeon users running Windows 8 can look forward to the following perks:

Unified Video API: Video playback has been integrated into the DirectX® 11 API, enabling simultaneous video and gaming content. Transcoding performance may also be improved for supporting applications.

Optimized screen rotation for rotation aware devices

Improved sleep/resume performance

Optimized GPU power consumption

That's not all. The 12.8 Catalysts apparently feature some juicy performance optimizations over the 12.6 release that came out a couple of months ago. AMD quotes the following performance gains:

Up to 25% in Elder Scrolls: Skyrim

Up to 3% in Battlefield 3

Up to 6% in Batman: Arkham City

Up to 3% in Dues Ex: Human Revolution

Up to 6% in Crysis 2

Up to 15% in Total War: Shogun

Up to 8% in Crysis Warhead

Up to 5% in Just Cause 2

Up to 10% in Dirt 3

(As usual, since no configuration details are provided, these are likely best-case scenarios.)

Oh, and AMD has squashed a handful of bugs, as well. The release notes mention resolves issues in Dirt Showdown, Max Payne 3, Shogun 2, and Star Wars: The Old Republic.